I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger
That is, his wrath and fury to the uttermost; his people are
deserving of his wrath as others, being by nature children of
wrath as the rest; which they are sensible of under spiritual
conviction, and therefore flee from it, where they may be safe:
and though the Lord often chastises and afflicts them, yet not in
wrath; or however but in a little wrath, as it seems to them; he
does not stir up all his wrath, nor any in reality; all being
poured upon his Son, their surety, who saves and delivers them
from wrath to come; I will not return to destroy
Ephraim;
or "again", or "any more, destroy" F6 him; not twice; he might
be destroyed when carried captive into Assyria; but the remnant
that shall spring from him in the latter day shall not be
destroyed, but saved. The Targum is,
``my word shall not return to destroy the house of Israel;''or I will not return from my love and affections to them, I will never be wroth with them any more; nor from my mercy to them, which is from everlasting to everlasting; or from my covenant, promise, and resolution to save them, they shall not be punished with everlasting destruction: for I [am] God, and not man;
``seeing I am God, my word remains for ever, and my works are not as the works of the flesh (or of men) who dwell upon the earth;''the Holy One in the midst of thee;
``I have decreed by my word that my holy Shechinah shall be among you, and I will not change Jerusalem again for another city;''which sense the Jewish commentators follow; but, as this respects Gospel times, the meaning seems to be, that God would dwell among his people everywhere, and would not be confined to any city or temple as heretofore; but wherever his church and people were, there would be his temple, and there he would dwell.